Vicki Edwards

"Making a difference in the back office..."

I started my career at one of the nation’s largest accounting firms, then spent 20 years with a national health care organization. While there I first worked for their nonprofit health plan, and then for their for-profit medical group. When my position was eliminated, I had the opportunity to figure out what I wanted to do next and realized that what I really liked were the principles of the nonprofit world. This led me to a national nonprofit, where I was CFO for the next 14 years. Although my position was eventually eliminated once again, the experience reaffirmed for me that I love to work in the nonprofit sector.

I was finishing up a consulting job in 2016 when someone from YPTC saw me on LinkedIn and invited me to a YPTC networking reception. I didn’t know anything about Your Part-Time Controller so I looked them up, read some of the staff’s testimonials, and thought, ‘Wow, this sounds like it could be interesting!’

After meeting many of the Washington, D.C. staff, learning more about the company and their clients, I knew this would be the right place for me. The next thing I knew I was being interviewed, hired, and was starting at my first client.

So far I’ve had a pretty consistent client base of three terrific national nonprofits. I love my clients: they’re dedicated organizations, with meaningful missions, and I like that I’m helping to make a difference even if I’m in the back office. I like interacting with a lot of different people — it’s very rewarding and never gets boring. And my YPTC colleagues are amazing. We all come from diverse backgrounds and experience, which provides a great network for sharing. If you have a question you can usually get an answer from someone who has already experienced the same thing. We also have great online resources, training and professional development benefits.

I like the flexibility of my client schedule. I definitely have my peak periods but it’s manageable. I know that YPTC will have my back if something comes up and I need additional help. I have more of a personal life now than I did before and that’s a definite plus.

Before I came to YPTC, I worked in two different places for a very long time, and gained some valuable experience. I’m excited to be able to share that experience with a new collection of smaller nonprofits where I get to provide a variety of services. I’m doing hands-on work, providing interim coverage for senior finance positions, onboarding new staff, and helping implement new software and practices. My clients are national in scope but relatively small in scale so I feel like I’m having an impact on them. Plus how can I argue with the wonderful things that they’re doing?